Phebe Schmidt - Photographer Research

Phebe Schmidt is a photographer based in Melbourne, Australia. Whilst many have classed her work as linked with the feminist movement, Phebe herself has referred to the theme as 'plasticity'. The photographer explores society's obsession with generic beauty that conforms to gender, social and cultural ideals. Although, this is not to say that her work is not linked with feminism as she has said that the more it is said, the more she sees it herself. In her work, Phebe uses bright, pastel colours in order to contrast against the negative undertone in her images and to support the theory of crafting unnatural perceptions. 

I have decided to include Phebe as one of my main photographic inspirations as her work is so unique and intriguing. I feel that this is because she focuses on the beauty standards of society for both genders and so does not purely focus her work on feminism but instead society as a whole. I find that her images are quite simplistic yet create such a strong message, an aspect that will influence my work as I do not believe that you need to create over the top images in order to send a message out. Also, I feel that simplistic images create more feeling as it shows how the smallest thing can be so effective - this is the direction in which I want to take my work.

From researching the work of Phebe Schmidt, I have found that creating a piece of work on the theme of beauty standards is not limited to just shooting pictures of different models - this is what I was planning on doing before. I have found that looking at the simplest things can create an impact on the societal ideology of beauty and how objects can be used to express the result of pressures to be 'beautiful', not just expressions by the model and the styling of their hair and make-up.

This image signifies how women in society are objectified and sexualised in many different forms. The woman on the mousepad has padding on the area where her chest is and so is being sexualised in the form of a mousepad. This image could symbolise how women are being seen as objects for pleasure in almost any way imaginable today despite movements that have been made to prevent situations such as this.

In this image, we a see close up of a girl with extremely messy and bright make up. This contrasts against the beauty standard that women should have perfect but natural looking make up. This image connotes how society has created the norm of women wearing make-up and only being seen as 'beautiful' with it, and so the vibrant colours an the excessive amounts of make up on her face could be expressing the desperation that some women feel to be 'beautiful' as a result of society's expectations.

This image is from Phebe Schmidt's 'Surgical Series'. The use of only mint green in this image makes the black false eyelashes pop and draws your focus towards them so that you realise what they are. This helps the message of the image come across much stronger. The image connotes how the use of make-up and accessories such as false eyelashes is almost like surgery, transforming the way you look. As Phebe's photographic movement is about the generic beauty of society, it could connote how it transforms you and changes you into meeting society's expectations.

This image is an example of how Phebe's work is not primarily influenced by feminism, as she shows how men too are manipulated into being products of society. This is a clear example of her theme of 'plasticity', as the man within the image is covered with a film of plastic, almost like a new product ready to go on the shelves. It could also connote that he is like a piece of meat, as men are also objectified by women in society and viewed like 'a piece of meat'.

When looking at the deadpan facial expression and body language of the woman, she seems to appear almost like a doll as there is not expression of feeling or emotion from her. In the right of the image, we see a hand running a big, plastic, pink comb through her hair. This could also lead us to interpret that the woman is supposed to be a doll as someone else is styling her hair. There could be connotations that the hand belongs to society as they are styling her hair to the way they believe it should look.